What to Plant
All Journey North Test Gardens are planted with RED EMPEROR tulips. The garden must be planted with new bulbs each year. Red Emperor tulips are an early-blooming variety that can be purchased in your local garden center or through an online source.

Also, report and share other interesting observations from your garden.

Gardening Tips
Plant your tulip bulbs in a common garden bed, or dig individual holes. A garden trowel or a bulb-planting tool is useful for planting bulbs individually.

Watering
Moisture is necessary for root development before winter. If dry weather persists, water thoroughly.

Fertilizing
All bulbs benefit from mixing bone meal with the soil in the planting hole.

Predators
Protect the bulbs from squirrels by securing chicken wire over newly planted gardens. Bent wire hangers will hold the wire at the edges. Deer - and moose - will eat your tulips when they emerge. Protect the growing plants with more chicken wire.

Mulch
You may mulch the garden after the ground freezes. Remove in the spring as bulbs emerge.

Some schoolyards do not have a site that fits the planting protocol. If you plant in a courtyard, near a foundation, etc. you must include this information about your site in your planting, emergence, and bloom reports.

Plant New Bulbs Every Year

Q. Do we need to plant a garden again this year? We planted Journey North bulbs last year and they're still in the ground.

A. Yes! New bulbs must be planted each year for the Journey North study. This is because many variables affect tulip growth in the bulb's second year. If people were to reuse bulbs, these variables could not be controlled so the experiment would not be reliable. Therefore, you must plant at least a dozen or more new bulbs each fall for your "official" Journey North garden.

However, you can still use last year's bulbs for experimental purposes! Students can dig them up, and weigh & inspect them before replanting. They can plant the old bulbs beside this year's new bulbs and compare how each grows. Or, they can vary such things as the amount of sun, heat, water, etc. the old bulbs receive.

Remember: Next spring, you may only report on the growth and blooming of the new, "official" bulbs as part of the Journey North experiment!

Q. What if it's too expensive to buy new bulbs every year?

A. Only buy a few new bulbs for your official report. A dozen is enough. You can re-use old bulbs so that each student has his or her own.